The present invention relates to an endoscope image processing device, an endoscope system, an image processing method, and the like.
It has been desired to improve the lesion detection accuracy within a body cavity during endoscopic diagnosis, and an endoscopic scope including a wide-angle optical system having an angle of view of 170° has been developed.
When using such an endoscopic scope, an area situated on the back side of the side field view (e.g., the back of large folds of an internal organ such as a large intestine) may not lie within the field-of-view range, and it may be difficult to acquire an image of a lesion present in such an area.
For example, an endoscopic scope that includes a fish-eye lens having an angle of view equal to or more than 180° may be used to observe an area situated on the back side of the side field view (e.g., the back of folds).
JP-A-2010-117665 discloses an optical system allows enables simultaneous observation of the front field of view and the side field of view. The optical system disclosed in JP-A-2010-117665 is effective for observing the back of the folds of the large intestine or the like since distortion in the peripheral region of the image that corresponds to the side field of view can be reduced.